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And the phrase “against thee” in Matthew 18:15

Here is what it says

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

Common sense, you could look pretty bad bringing an accusation against some one and then find out you are wrong.

First go to them privately to make sure you understood what they did, self preservation and Christian fairness.

It’s only slander if it’s false. Truth is an absolute defense.>>>>>>>>

That is true legally, but even if it is the truth and your sole intent is to defame some one the only difference is that it is legal in this country.

Kind of a deal breaker trying to discuss the meaning of the word of God when the other party is actively chopping it to bits. Just sayin ...

That’s ok.
I am just trying to see Paul the way he was, if I am right or wrong you can not tell me.

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over."

That's the NIV translation which has the problems I mentioned in my earlier post. The Byzantine textform, the dominant text of historic Christianity, has the "against you," making personal offense a necessary feature of the Matthew 18 protocol: Here's the Greek, with the "against you" in bold and underlined:

Matthew 18:15 Ἐὰν δὲ ἁμαρτήσῃ εἰς σὲ ὁ ἀδελφός σου, ὕπαγε καὶ ἔλεγξον αὐτὸν μεταξὺ σοῦ καὶ αὐτοῦ μόνου. Ἐάν σου ἀκούσῃ, ἐκέρδησας τὸν ἀδελφόν σου·

SR: It’s only slander if it’s false. Truth is an absolute defense.>>>>>>>>

RW: That is true legally, but even if it is the truth and your sole intent is to defame some one the only difference is that it is legal in this country.

It's true morally, too. If a neighbor comes up to me and says, "your other next door neighbor is a pedophile," is that defamation? Not if it's true. It's being a good neighbor. Defamation as a false accusation is recognized world wide (See Wikipedia on global use of defamation). The same Wikipedia article defines defamation as::

"the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of an individual person, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation."

Furthermore, it is well known that the Biblical law of protecting an individual's reputation from false accusation (Exodus 20:16) is the basis of defamation in common law jurisdictions (See this Wikipedia article for a list of common law jurisdictions - it may surprise you). In either case, falsity is an essential element of the offense. If you are thinking of some other offense, I am not aware of any name for the "offense" of "confronting someone in public for doing a real public harm."

The Matthew 18 protocol is there to protect private individuals from being harmed by the public airing of private matters. But if someone is drawing the whole congregation into error, the whole congregation needs to be part of the process of correction.

Peace,

SR